Even Hillary Clinton was in Argentina

In honor of the great World Cup win by Argentina today against South Korea to the score of 4-1, I have posted the above photos that I took in Buenos Aires last week where I attended the ALIO-INFORMS conference.

In the top photo above is a nice note from Hillary Clinton who dined at the Cafe Tortoni in Buenos Aires, a cafe that we also had the pleasure of eating at last week. I also recommend La Biela in La Recoleta, a very historic part of Buenos Aires, whose charming waiters gave us many extra pieces of exquisite dark chocolate.

If you'd like to see more photos of Buenos Aires, please see my earlier blogposts. The New York Times has front page coverage today about the Argentine soccer coach, Maradona, and his team's star player, Messi. Maradona, who is considered one of the top former soccer players ever, has promised to run naked through the streets of Buenos Aires should Argentina win the World Cup. He continues to coach his team at the World Cup matches dressed in a gray suit, which, as many have noticed (and despite the elegance of the people of Buenos Aires) does not fit him well.

Also, Professor Peter Lohmander of Umea, Sweden has kindly posted gorgeous photos that he took while at the same operations research conference in Buenos Aires . His photos may be accessed here.

Faces at INFORMS Conference in Buenos Aires

Today was the first day that I could catch my breath since arriving in Buenos Aires, Argentina last Saturday to attend the ALIO-INFORMS conference. The conference was a whirlwind experience with about 1,000 conferees in attendance and just over 100 from the US. Giving a talk, taking part in a panel on international collaborations, plus attending an editorial board meeting, and giving a tutorial on Fragile Networks, still left me some time to attend both plenary talks and keynote talks as well as another tutorial (besides my own).

What a colleague said to me yesterday, I agree with -- in addition to the scientific exchanges that take place at an international conference, what makes such events so special is the people that you meet from colleagues from around the world that you get to see again and to reconnect with to new friends that are made.

Above are some photos taken at some of the above conference events that I mentioned earlier.

More photos and reflections can be found in several of my earlier blogposts.

The atmosphere in Buenos Aires, with the beautiful pale blue sky and the fascinating architecture and boulevards, plus the fantastic food and elegant people (and numerous dogs and dogwalkers), all make for a truly unique and special conference venue.

Operations Research Tutorials at ALIO-INFORMS Conference

There is a wealth of tutorials at the very soon to take place ALIO-INFORMS Conference, as well as exciting plenary talks and keynote speeches. The venue is Buenos Aires, Argentina, which has been called the "Paris of the South."

The topics of the tutorials and plenary and keynote speeches are varied and exciting and include a wide spectrum: from optimization in sports to portfolio management, OR education, revenue management, dynamic games, humanitarian operations, telecommunications applications, cliques in graphs, among others. The full list can be read here.

Mike Trick has a blog post that he is also off to the conference and has been working on his tutorial.

I am sure that this conference will be covered well by the bloggers in attendance and plan on posting from Buenos Aires!

The tutorial that I will be giving is on Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age and I have made the slides available (along with those for a presentation and for the International Collaborations panel that I will be on). An invited paper, based on this tutorial, and in press in the journal, International Transactions in Operational Research, joint with my co-author of the Fragile Networks book, can be downloaded (in pdf format).

International Collaborations Panel

I am very much looking forward to the ALIO-INFORMS Conference that will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 6-9, 2010. Besides giving a talk on Sustainable Supply Chain Network Design at the conference and an invited tutorial: Fragile Networks: Identifying Vulnerabilities and Synergies in an Uncertain Age, which is on the theme of my latest book with Professor Patrick Qiang, I will be on a panel: International Collaborations. The panel was organized by Professor Sadan Kulturel of Pennsylvania State University Berks and is sponsored by WORMS (Women in Operations Research and the Management Sciences). Dr. Kulturel has assembled a great group of panelists that I am honored to be included with: Dr. Karla Hoffman of George Mason University, Dr. M. Gulnara Baldoquin of the Higher Polytechnic Institute in Cuba, and Dr. Lorena Pradenas of Concepcion University in Chile. More information on the panelists can be accessed here with a press release from Penn State Berks on this panel available here.

Each panelist will give a 10 minute presentation followed by questions and answers.

My presentation on my personal experiences and reflections on international collaborations is available here (complete with a lot of photos)

I am very much looking forward to this conference and to participating in the panel and discussions and I thank Dr. Sadan Kulturel for organizing this special panel.